Friday’s news that St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) will receive a US $25 million grant from the Trust Fund managed by the World Bank for the newly planned general hospital is most welcome. Prior financing for the project had been secured, but record-strength Hurricane Irma proved the building needed to be made even more hurricane-resistant than originally thought.
That required a redesign and related increase of the budget, which caused the necessary delay in this long-awaited project. Part of the money for which an agreement was just signed will be used to enhance current services by investing in critical upgrades to the existing facility and Care Complex that is to remain also after the new hospital is finished.
Experience elsewhere, including the other two Dutch Caribbean countries Curaçao and Aruba, shows that constructing modern hospitals and moving there despite being “next door” can be an extremely complex and time-consuming process. Realistically it will take several years before the envisioned local facility is fully operational and an adequate level of health care must be available in the meantime.
SMMC did suffer damage from Irma and its structure was weakened, so it’s logical to give that urgent situation priority. The first phase of roof repairs was recently completed, to be followed by reinforcement works.
Besides, the short-term improvements may already lead to fewer expensive medical referrals abroad by enabling more specialists to practice on the island. This probably would save on the ever-rising health care costs and help keep them in check, making it a worthwhile endeavour in that sense as well.
